New evidence supports the idea that a huge space rock collided with our planet about 13,000 years ago and broke up in Earth's atmosphere, a new study suggests.

This impact would have been powerful enough to melt the ground, and could have killed off many large mammals and humans. It may even have set off a period of unusual cold called the Younger Dryas that began at that time, researchers say.

The idea that Earth experienced an asteroid or comet impact at the start of the Younger Dryas has been controversial, in part because there is no smoking-gun impact crater left behind as with other known events in our planet's past. But researchers say it's common for space rocks to disintegrate in the heat of a planet's atmosphere before they can reach the ground.

The scientists first reported their suspicions about the event in 2007. Now, they say, a new site in Central Mexico's Lake Cuitzeo displays telltale signs of an impact, including melted rock formations called spherules and microscopic diamonds that could only have formed under extreme temperatures.

The researchers, led by Isabel Israde-Alcántara of Mexico's Universidad Michoacana de San Nicólas de Hidalgo, published their findings online March 5 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

This scanning electron microscope image shows a magnetic impact spherule likely to have been created by an asteroid or comet impact 12,900 years ago, researchers say.CREDIT: Israde et al. (2012)

Buried evidence

"If you don't have a crater, you're a little bit lost," said space scientist Ted Bunch of Northern Arizona University, a member of the research team. "Here what we have is something similar to an aerial bomb blast. With these aerial bursts, with time all the evidence is wiped away unless it's buried." [Best Close Encounters of the Comet Kind]

In addition to the Mexican site, the scientists have found signs of an impact in Canada, the United States, Russia, Syria and various sites in Europe. And all of these bits of evidence were found buried in a thin layer of rock that dates to precisely 12,900 years ago.

"If you have an event like this in a 1- or 2-inch layer that dates to exactly the same age over a very large area, and you have high-temperature materials and nanodiamonds in there, the evidence pretty well points to an event that as pretty disastrous," Bunch told SPACE.com.

This wouldn't have been the only aerial impact event ever to hit Earth. Scientists think a space rock exploded over Siberia in 1908, flattening 500,000 acres (2,000 square kilometers) of forest in what's known as the Tunguska event.

Heat flash

If a comet, which would have been traveling at about 30 miles per second, impacted Earth's atmosphere, it would have created a flash of extreme heat reaching about 3,000 to 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit (1,600 to 2,200 degrees Celsius).

In addition to melting the ground, such temperatures would have proven cataclysmic to many kinds of life.

At the same time that the impact may have taken place  12,900 years ago  Earth was beginning a mini ice age. It is known that many large animals, such as the mammoth and the saber-toothed cat, did not survive this age. There's even evidence of a population decline in humans living in North America at the time, called the Clovis culture.

The researchers aren't claiming that the comet impact caused the climate changes at the time, but Bunch said such an event would have had a significant effect on Earth's climate.

"We're not going to come out and say it did do it, but it's more than a coincidence that the timing happened exactly the time that a lot of climatic conditions occurred and you had the loss of various species," Bunch said.

Still, the researchers predict some skeptics will remain unconvinced that Earth was hit by space rock during the Younger Dryas.

"There's always going to be theoretical and statistical people who would never believe it even if they were there," Bunch said."I think what we're trying to do is open up a vista there for people to examine the data themselves and make their own conclusions."

Somewhat dated BUT, this is NOT the El Norte America impact we have been reading about for the last several years. Given their confessed faith in gradualism, I doubt few from the Scientific Community would accept the notion yet that the Pleistocene/Holocene event may have included multiple impacts around the globe. The article seems to imply this.

Dr. Robert Schoch, who I find to be a fairly credible witness tends to believe massive solar storms from our sun may have been the culprit. I suppose both could have happened and been contributing factors. Me, I dunno...

“If a comet, which would have been traveling at about 30 miles per second, impacted Earth’s atmosphere, it would have created a flash of extreme heat reaching about 3,000 to 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit (1,600 to 2,200 degrees Celsius).”

I bet that’s how we got red hot chili peppers. Aiee! Carramba! (Sic)

20
posted on 07/15/2012 6:01:10 PM PDT
by Tucker39
( Psa 68:19Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits; even the God of our salvation.KJV)

Have you seen other articles about impacts contemporaneous with the one believed to have hit northern North America ~12,900 years ago. I've seen other posts/articles discussing black mat layers etc in other parts of the northern hemisphere and assumed it was the result of the one that hit northern NA, but nothing this far south.

36
posted on 07/15/2012 7:16:30 PM PDT
by ForGod'sSake
(You have only two choices: SUBMIT or RESIST with everything you've got!!!)

I hadn’t seen anything about something that far south, either (that I recall) but having multiple parts of the same object arrive at slightly different times appears to be more common than the reverse. We should all wait to see about the dating of this new find — perhaps it happened earlier or later, like perhaps it’s dated the same as Berringer crater(still no solid, agreed-upon date for that impact).

There is no reason to think that the Earth had not taken as many hits proportionally as what we can see on the Moon. Yes our atmosphere is going to break up the asteroids more but it should be about the same.

38
posted on 07/15/2012 7:28:33 PM PDT
by Clay Moore
(The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of a fool to the left. Ecclesiastes 10:2)

For a long while it was taught that all of Earth's impact craters formed during the Late Heavy Bombardment, and that all trace of them had been eroded away, because Earth is unique etc. Turns out people just weren't looking for them, now nearly 200 have been identified and studied.

We should all wait to see about the dating of this new find  perhaps it happened earlier or later, like perhaps its dated the same as Berringer crater(still no solid, agreed-upon date for that impact).

From a VERY long COMPANION ARTICLE it seems the group which includes Firestone, Kennett et al have settled on ~12,900 years ago. No mention of their dating method that I could find.

Now Berringer is a whole 'nother story. I haven't read anything anywhere(haven't really looked) about their dating method. Many moons ago???

41
posted on 07/15/2012 8:00:49 PM PDT
by ForGod'sSake
(You have only two choices: SUBMIT or RESIST with everything you've got!!!)

It is interesting that more and more evidence is piling up to support the hypothesis in Firestone et al.’s book. The article talks of the ice age ending at the time of the Younger Dryas which was then made worse. My understanding is the the ice age was ending around 15 to 18,000 years ago, and that this event/series of events triggered the Younger Dryas. Firestone’s book documents very widespread effects from Canada to our Southwest and even northwestern Europe. My vote would be for more than one impactor. After all, remember how many boloids struck Jupiter a few years ago.

The Carolina Bays are one such phenomenon possibly caused. My guess is that huge blocs of ice were thrown out, skidded to a stop and melted. Lake Michigan appears to have been formed by 2 or 3 impactors whose traces are found underwater. The Clovis culture was decimated as were large numbers of the great mammals.

The Tungusku event was small by comparison. A similar event occurred in the Brazilian jungle several decades later but was somewhat smaller in size. We are only beginning to appreciate the impact of boloid events on our earth and our history. Sunken Civ has brought to our attention the discover of a 2 mile crater in the drained Iraq Marshes whih fell about 4,000 years ago. Was this the cause of the First Intermediate Period in Egypt about that time? Ipuwer records a time of terrible social upheaval and distress in a papyrus. There are also fairly large meteor craters found in Argentina around the same period or perhaps a little earlier. So much to learn, so little time!! But first we have to use our open minds.

Slavery, as mentioned/defined/used in the Bible is NOT the slavery we encountered here. It was more ‘indentured servant’ style. In no place does the Bible ‘endorse’ the practice of slavery, as we know it to be.

Context, especially historical, is everything.

47
posted on 07/16/2012 8:17:05 AM PDT
by RoadGumby
(This is not where I belong, Take this world and give me Jesus.)

I read several essays by Robert Schoch last night who, for whatever reasons I give some elevated credence to. Most everything I've read of his APPEARS an honest assessment, circumventing most of the PCBS, but that's just me. Anyhow, early on he leaned towards impactor(s) but he now leans more towards plasma discharges, from whatever source(s), primarily our sun. He tiptoed around Velikovsky's premise of a close flyby of say, Venus, by alluding to OTHER possible charged bodies. BTW, he doesn't eliminate impactors altogether and confesses there may have been more than one contributing factor. FWIW...

48
posted on 07/16/2012 8:42:49 AM PDT
by ForGod'sSake
(You have only two choices: SUBMIT or RESIST with everything you've got!!!)

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